How Do Non‐Standard Work and Labour Market Policy Spending Shape Preferences for Training Versus Unemployment Benefits in Budgetary Trade‐Offs?

Abstract

This study investigates workers' preferences for expanding training and education at the cost of reducing unemployment benefits in the context of budgetary trade-offs. It focuses on non-standard employment types at the individual level and the ratios of expenditures on training and unemployment benefits within labour market policies (LMPs) at the county level. Analysing a dataset that combines European Social Survey Round 8 data (2016) with country-level data from the OECD for 19 European countries, the findings reveal that workers' preferences vary depending on employment type and LMP expenditure allocation. The analysis indicates that part-time permanent workers are more supportive of increasing training at the expense of unemployment benefits, while part-time temporary workers show less support. Full-time temporary employees and solo self-employed workers exhibit no significant differences from standard employees. From a comparative perspective, support for reallocating funds to training is lower in countries that dedicate a larger share of their LMP budget to training but higher in countries that spend more on unemployment benefits within their total LMP expenditure.